Teleology

Teleology is the study of the direction of nature towards the goals, ideals and plans of a supernatural being or force. Teleology is sometimes identified with the teleological method of cognition, which also includes the use of teleological concepts in describing the world. In the social sciences the term teleology is used in various meanings. The broad understanding of teleology in the social sciences is a direction in philosophy that seeks to explain all phenomena in nature, society or culture through the concept of teleological cause.

Teleology arose long before modern scientific philosophical thought, and its oldest manifestations are found in the Hindu Vedic Brahmins, who preach the goal of creating a world out of chaos. The authors of the Vedas, applying the concept of a rational purpose to the universe, rightly attributed the creation of the world to the Lord, Brahma. Later this idea was spread beyond India. Among the ancient Greek philosophers, who discussed the structure of the world created in accordance with a certain purpose, teleological concepts played an important role in explaining the emergence of the universe from chaos; This was the opinion of, for example, Leucippus, Epicurus, and Lucretius. Among Aristotle's many systems, not one, however, defends a teleological view of the universe; on the contrary, Aristotle ridicules the supporters of this doctrine as “ultra-teleologists” who deny the existence of gods, for God teleologically possesses the beginning and cause of the world. Only in the teachings of medieval naturalists, such as Albertus Magnus, Jacob Eriugena and Abu-l-Walih ibn-Abdallah al-Balkhi, the concept of teleological connection and target law